Since its origin in the 19th Century, the sport of tennis has become increasingly popular to the point where tennis courts are generally found in public parks, High Schools and Middle Schools, hotels and other resorts, and on the grounds of many residences. In areas where the weather may frequently become inclement, special indoor tennis facilities may be constructed, and arrangements often also made for courts to be set up in gymnasiums. Ordinarily, where players oppose each other on opposite sides of the net, only three to six balls may be used by the players and when balls on the ground are to be retrieved, they may be readily picked up and held by the players.
There are many occasions, however, when a single player may desire to practice his serve or other strokes. Where a serve is being practiced and the player is alone on the court, he may wish to serve a large number of balls from one side of the court, and thereafter proceed to the other side to pick up the balls and serve back to the side from which he originally started serving. On other occasions, where the player is practicing strokes with a ball machine, the player may hit a large number of balls directed at him by the ball machine back to the court on which the ball machine is located. Practice of this nature is quite desirable where a player desires to improve his tennis game.
Where such solitary practice is engaged in, the player is then confronted with having to proceed to the other side of the court to retrieve a very large number of balls which he may have hit to such other side of the court.
The problem of retrieving balls and storing them for further use has been addressed in a number of patents, among which are the earlier U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,889,996 and 3,984,138. These patents basically feature ball pick-up baskets.
After balls are picked up particularly if the basket contains a large number of balls, it has been found desirable to provide some type of wheels or rollers on the underside of the basket to enable it to be rolled from one side of the court to the other or elsewhere. Examples of wheeled baskets are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,461,504 and 4,844,527. The latter patent discloses a collector which includes arms to gather up the balls and also means, after the balls have been collected, to enable the basket to be standingly elevated for easy access to the balls in the basket after they have been collected, This feature of elevated access is also found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,412,697 and 3,926,465. The latter patent discloses in one embodiment a rolling receptacle.
Among the problems of these earlier devices, however, are the fact that most are not sturdy. Their mechanical features are not reliable and where constructed of wires or thin rods, they may be easily bent to where they may be rendered unfunctional. Further, when the ball containing baskets are elevated, they are set in a single fixed position and must be lifted if it should be desired to move them. In addition, particularly in clubs, resorts and private tennis courts, prior art baskets tend to detract from the beauty of a well designed and well maintained court. What is desired, therefore, is a collector and retainer which is aesthetic, rugged in construction, effective in picking up and retaining balls, readily rollable in any desired direction, and may easily be shifted from the ball collecting function to the position where the balls which have been collected, may easily be accessed by the user for further practice; and, in this latter disposition, may be rolled to different locations on the court for the convenience of the person practicing his or her serve or other strokes.
Lastly, the device should be able to be fabricated and sold for a price which would not be considered unreasonable.